Any developments in Quantum communication?

I have a hunch that we are using the wrong technology to look in the
wrong place, and consequently, am not very confident of SETI ever
finding anything - after all these years of trying so hard.

We have tried so hard and don't appear to be making much progress and
it's like everyone is saying "can't stop now, we've come this far, we
can't really stop now to check whether we are on the correct path". I
think the whole SETI project needs a serious rethink (IMHO).

How come we have not detected any significant messages after all this
time?. I know it is a hard problem to solve, but "failure" after so many
years should surely cause one to stop and check if what we are doing can
ever achieve the results we "know instinctively" of but have no prove of
(yet). Most scientist agree that the odds of life forming out there in
the universe is very high. It is not inconceivable then, to postulate
that since some parts of the universe/galaxy are billions of years older
than our solar system, it is probable that sentient life has developed
somewhere else.

I believe we can once again turn to nature and see how "she" does
things. A lot of communication in nature is done via so called "energy
perbutations". From a scientific point of view, the only framework we
have (so far) for explaining instantaneous, simultaneous communication
is Quantum Mechanics and Quantum Communication.

However, we don't seem to hear much about development in this field (or
am I just not aware?). Does anyone know of research or developments
being done in this area?

As an aside, I am considering funding research in this kind of work -
since I don't think we can (or for that matter should) depend on
governments and politicians to be the main players in answering the
fundamental question of "are we alone?". I will be very interested in
getting an open source project started, to further R&D in quantum
communication software and quantum devices.

Look forward to your response

Takeshi wrote:
I have a hunch that we are using the wrong technology to look in the
wrong place,

Yes, very possibly so.


and consequently, am not very confident of SETI ever
finding anything - after all these years of trying so hard.

We have only made an extremely brief look. We are using only meagre
resources for our search. There is a vast amount of searching yet to do.


[...]
perbutations". From a scientific point of view, the only framework we
have (so far) for explaining instantaneous, simultaneous communication
is Quantum Mechanics and Quantum Communication.

The old quantum "spooky communication at a distance"?...

I think there is a lot more theory work required!


However, we don't seem to hear much about development in this field (or
am I just not aware?). Does anyone know of research or developments
being done in this area?

Try Google... There is a lot more there than what I can read!


As an aside, I am considering funding research in this kind of work -
since I don't think we can (or for that matter should) depend on
governments and politicians to be the main players in answering the
fundamental question of "are we alone?". I will be very interested in
getting an open source project started, to further R&D in quantum
communication software and quantum devices.

Look forward to your response


Interesting... Please keep us posted.

Good luck,
Martin

--
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- Martin - To most people, "Operating System" is unknown & strange.
- 53N 1W - Mandrake 10.0.1 GNU Linux
---------- http://www.mandrakelinux.com/en-gb/concept.php3

Takeshi wrote in message ...
I have a hunch that we are using the wrong technology to look in the
wrong place, and consequently, am not very confident of SETI ever
finding anything - after all these years of trying so hard.

There really hasn't been that much searching at significant
sensitivity or covering much of the spectrum. It is far too early to
be discouraged.

We have tried so hard and don't appear to be making much progress and
it's like everyone is saying "can't stop now, we've come this far, we
can't really stop now to check whether we are on the correct path". I
think the whole SETI project needs a serious rethink (IMHO).

The SETI Institute convened a series of workshops of outside experts
to consider new approaches. The workshop concluded the current
approaches were still valid, but recommended some new areas for
research. New optical searches and a new telescope design came out of
those workshops. The results are published in a book "SETI 2020".

How come we have not detected any significant messages after all this
time?. I know it is a hard problem to solve,

I don't think you really appreciate just how hard the problem is, or
how little searching has been done. Phoenix and SERENDIP are the only
projects to achieve good sensitivity and frequency coverage.
(SETI@Home only covers about 2 MHz.) Project Phoenix just finished in
March and over a span of nine years covered the equivalent of 800
stars over the available frequencies between 1.2 and 3.0 GHz. That's
hardly a statistically significant sample of the stars in our galaxy.


I believe we can once again turn to nature and see how "she" does
things. A lot of communication in nature is done via so called "energy
perbutations". From a scientific point of view, the only framework we
have (so far) for explaining instantaneous, simultaneous communication
is Quantum Mechanics and Quantum Communication.

Quantum entanglement still requires two particles and to use them to
communicate two widely separated points, the particles have to be
moved to those points. If the ETs in the Alpha Centauri system were
to send us a particle connected to one in their laboratory, how would
we recognize it? Perhaps they would send a radio message with
instructions. :-)


As an aside, I am considering funding research in this kind of work -
since I don't think we can (or for that matter should) depend on
governments and politicians to be the main players in answering the
fundamental question of "are we alone?".

All SETI programs are privately funded. NASA is funding some
workshops to consider the possibility of life on planets orbiting low
mass (M) stars. Besides the implications for astrobiology, the
results of these workshops will be used to add stars to a SETI target
list for the Allen Telescope Array. That is the only US government
money that helps SETI in any way.

I will be very interested in
getting an open source project started, to further R&D in quantum
communication software and quantum devices.

Good luck.

Peter Backus
Project Phoenix
SETI Institute